Spencer smiled at the nurses and doctors as they walked past, doing her best to stay out of their way. More and more often it felt she was finding her way into the confines of the Bozeman Hospital, each reason growing worse. Her head perked at the sound of the door to Jimmy's room opening, her posture straightening as her father walked out. John didn't speak, giving his youngest an exasperated look as they walked down the hall to the exit.
"You know I could've paid from this Daddy," Spencer reasserted, despite being told no a few times before. "It was my call that let him go out there, I don't mind."
John smirked, a lone laugh sneaking through his hard facade. "I know you can Tiny, that's not the point though."
"What's the point exactly?"
"You made that call because it's the call I made with you. Consider this more a consequence of my judgment."
Spencer rolled her eyes at her father, but didn't drag out the conversation more. She was more than happy to let him pay if he truly insisted anyway.
"The Governor's coming today," John reminded Spencer as they neared the truck.
She waited at the passenger door, her eyebrows waggling in her father's direction as she opened the door. "I'm sure you'll bring her around to see our side of things?"
John laughed, "You make me sound like a damn gigolo."
"I'll make sure you get a fair rate if you do a good enough job," Spencer winked at her father as he blushed, actually blushed, before pulling out of the spot. "Think you could drop me at Beth's? She had something she wanted to go over with me."
John only nodded, turning the radio up to keep his daughter from pestering any further into his personal life.
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The new brick and mortar edition to the Schwartz & Meyer company stood on the sunny corner of main street in downtown Bozeman. Which meant every single person and their mother stared at the brick building as they walked past. And meant that every single one of those people had been in Spencer's way as she entered the building.
"Fucking transplants," she whispered under her breath as she walked through the heavy glass doors and up the stairs. She could already hear the conversation between Bob and her sister, which meant Beth was already schmoozing her boss into oblivion.
Beth smiled over her computer as Spencer sat, continuing to pretend to listen to Bob explain how she was poking a bear. Spencer smirked back, pulling her phone from her pocket to read through the messages that had piled up that morning from Sawyer. She made a mental reminder to actually call her best friend, seeing as they hadn't spoken much in the weeks Sawyer had been away. With summer disappearing rapidly, it would be a matter of time before the blonde was home.
"Well I'm not gonna put the word out there, you are," Beth insisted as she continued her conversation. "It's ripe to short, do you disagree?"
Spencer could hear the sigh that came out of Bob, forcing her to suppress her laughter. "They're exposed, it's true. And it's going to cut them pretty deep when you do this, they'll come out swinging."
Beth's smirk turned devilish as her eyes lifted back over her computer, "Well that's what she's for."
Spencer yelled a greeting to Bob from her seat as she continued to scroll through her texts. She heard something about how he didn't really condone that and some other garbage, but she paid Bob no mind. Her antics on behalf of Beth had secured him millions in assets before, so he was clearly saying it to save his own ass.
"I'll take the managers but Beth, just a little leak," Bob paused, adding, "You think you can hold her to that Spencer?"
Spencer winked to her sister as she responded, "I'll do my best Bobby."
Beth spread her fingers at the screen, "A medium leak. Anything worth doing is only worth doing right."
Bob grumbled, but Beth signed off before he could voice his concerns. And then she waited as Spencer put her phone away. A manicured eyebrow leapt into the air at the redhead, knowing Spencer's question before she even asked.
"Is this really going to work?"
Beth tilted her head to the side as she looked across to her sister. Her sister who had grown up so quickly in the past year, so much faster than she ever should have had to. "Maybe, maybe not. It's sure as hell gonna shake a red flag at a pissed off bull though, so we better be ready for anything that comes our way Tiny."
"Our?"
"You really think I'd throw you to the fire on your own this time?" Beth smiled as she shook her head. "We gotta stick together, now more than ever. Now get out of my face, go love up on your man or something, I got livelihoods to ruin."
Spencer chuckled, shaking her head as she stood. "I think I'm starting to see why everyone's scared of you Tink."
Beth's eyes narrowed playfully at the old nickname, "You're next on my list with that attitude young lady."
Spencer merely held her hands up in mock surrender as she walked with her back to the door, winking as she exited the office.
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"Hello Honey," Spencer shouted as she cleared the fence in front of Rip's cabin. "How was your day?"
Rip chuckled, already pulling a second beer from his cooler. "You know, when your father gets tired of sleeping in the woods he's gonna wonder where his darling daughter has been sleeping."
Spencer's eyebrow popped at his comment. "If he was so concerned he shouldn't have given you a cabin so far from the main house. Besides, that man loves the woods more than he loves being a rancher, we won't be seeing him anytime soon."
Rip smiled warmly at her answer, handing over the beer as Spencer stopped in front of him. "How was your day of conniving and planning world domination Darling?"
"The world best prepare for the wrath of Beth, she looked excited when I left. I swear she's got plans for her plans."
"She's like a little spider in her web."
Spencer snorted as she sipped her beer, almost choking as she forced the drink down before catching her breath. "When the hell did you get funny Rip?"
Rip looked at Spencer quizzically, pulling her into his lap, to which she didn't complain. "Darling I've always been funny."
She smiled as she settled into her new position, pulling his hat from his head and settling it on hers. "Baby you are many things, including the love of my life, but you have never been funny."
Spencer watched as something shifted in Rip's face, though she couldn't quite place the emotion. But his smile seemed to grow.
"Say that again?"
Her head tilted to the side as she looked down at Rip. "Baby?"
He shook his head, his ocean blue eyes blazing with fierce adoration, waiting for Spencer to catch on. Her features melted into a warm smile as she slid a little closer in his lap.
"You mean love of my life?" Her grin deepened as he nodded. "Rip Wheeler you have been the love of my life since I was sixteen and I didn't know a damn thing about what love meant."
Rip smiled as Spencer kissed him, but his thoughts flashed back to the conversation he had with Cole the day before. And the shift in his thoughts must have cleared his face as Spencer asked, "What's wrong?"
"Well," he paused, seeing as he didn't actually know how to start the conversation he was about to have. They'd been together for almost a decade and yet had never discussed this. "I don't know, Cole asked me something the other day and it got my brain spinnin'."
"Cole asks a lot of silly questions, if you sit there and stare at him long enough the gears in his head usually start working and he figures it out."
Rip chuckled, remembering how many times Spencer had done that to the boy since he and his sister had moved in. "It was about Charlotte-"
"Is everything okay?"
Spencer had paid good fucking money for everything about Charlotte moving back to Montana to be okay, so if it was anything less she would be pissed.
"Everything's fine, Darling," Rip soothed, tucking a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. "He talked about how well you've gotten on with Charlotte, how good you are with her, and with Tate... He assumed we were going to-"
Rip cut himself off, hoping Spencer could fill the blanks in on her own. And she did, her eyes widening like frisbees.
"Kids?" Rip only nodded once. Spencer sputtered, her mind scrambling for purchase in her freefall of racing thoughts. "I- do you want kids Rip?"
He shrugged. "That's a loaded question Spencer, you know that."
Spencer squinted at him, pulling herself back just a little from his arms. "That's not an answer Rip..."
He stared at her, trying to say something, but nothing came out. Spencer stood to her feet, her face hard and unreadable as Rip scrambled to recover.
"Honey that's not what I meant," he started after her as she neared the fence. "I just meant that there's a lot of pain lingering in my family tree. The only family I've ever known is you and the one I found here. It never occurred to me that you might-"
"Because you never asked Rip!" Spencer's words flew out of her faster than she could stop them. Her heart cracked just a little as she watched sadness creep over his face. She could see him trying to understand, but she felt like she was drowning. Like the whole fucking world was barrelling down the road at her and he just knocked the air from her lungs. "God it's been ten years and you decide now is the time to bring this up?"
Rip stammered as he stood in front of her, a man of few words reduced to none as he looked at her in shock. He took a few steps toward her, but she packed away until she was at the fence. "Spencer, will you come here and talk to me!"
Spencer still as her fingers brushed over the warm metal of the fence. She knew she was blowing this conversation out of proportion; knew that his concerns were legitimate, but she couldn't stop. She pushed her palms onto her eyes, groaning as she learned her elbows on the fence.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
She forced her breaths to follow her commands, letting the haze around her mind start to clear. A gentle hand laid on her back, her gaze pushing up to see Rip, concern and sadness laced tightly across his face.
"I'm sorry Spence, I-"
She shook her head harshly. "You have nothing to be sorry for, everything's just been a lot and I'm sorry I blew that way out of proportion. I- If I'm being honest I didn't think it was an option, I assumed with everything that happened to you it was never going to be an option. And I had been okay with that, or at least I thought I was okay with that. But then you ask that after last night and you draw up that little bit of hope I had buried away. I saw how good you were with Charlie, and I've seen how good you are with Tate, but then you avoid that answer and I-"
Rip didn't get to hear the end of her apology, didn't need to hear it, as he pulled her into him. She had pushed that dream away, for him. And fuck if that didn't hurt more than being shot in the gut. He held Spencer at arms length, bending so he could meet her eyes. His heart broke at the tears sliding down her face, his thumbs reaching up to brush them away.
"You have nothing to be sorry for. Spencer I will never stop loving you, if this is something you want, I want it too. God, woman I would crawl through Hell and back just to see you smile every morning, don't you know that?"
Spencer laughed despite the tears still slowly rolling down her face. She could only bring herself to nod as Rip hugged her close once again. She didn't know what this meant moving forward, but it was something to figure out tomorrow.
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author's note. hi everyone! i'm sorry it's taking a lot of time between chapters... i currently am up to working 6 days a week regularly and then haven't had a day off all september so i am working as fast as i can on all my current books!